The pet industry is concerned with accommodating for the safe transport of animals. Safe transport of pets always begins with the safe and proper entry of the pet into the transporting vehicle and always ends with the safe and proper exit of the animal from the transporting vehicle.
A problem facing many of the apparatuses used to assist pets into vehicles is that many are designed to be solely adapted for the rear hatch entry of a vehicle. An apparatus that employs entry and exit only through a rear hatch of a vehicle has intrinsic shortcomings that need to be addressed if the rear hatch is not an acceptable place for the pet to enter, exit, or stay during transportation. Accordingly, an apparatus that provides for safe entry and exit into a vehicle through a side door is needed. Currently, there are no ramps which can effectively provide safe access to a rear seat of a vehicle other than a van with sliding doors. This restriction typically results from the side doors being unable to open far enough to mount the ramp perpendicular to the vehicle. Placing a ramp into the side door of a vehicle despite these restrictions will cause the ramp to be oriented at an angle because only one portion of the ramp will make contact with the vehicle seat. This will leave the other portion of the ramp unsupported and further cause the ramp to be unstable and dangerous to the animal. A need exists to provide a stabilizing system that will fully support the ramp when the ramp is installed in the side door of a vehicle.
The present invention discloses a stabilizing system having a ramp and a tension mechanism. The ramp has a first end that is mounted within a vehicle, typically on a seat, and a second end that is positioned on a base surface, such as the ground, external to the vehicle. The tension mechanism includes a first end section, a second end section, and a tension member positioned between the first and second end sections. The first and second end sections are releasably coupled to the vehicle and the first end of the ramp respectively when the ramp is maintained in a fixed location with the vehicle and the base surface.
The releasable sliding engagement of the second end section of the tension member around an end of the ramp provides for easy and quick installation of the stabilizing system on either side of a vehicle. Specifically, the tension mechanism can be affixed to the ramp on either the driver's side or the passenger's side of the vehicle. Such permits a user to require the pet to enter and/or exit on a particular side of a vehicle such to avoid the animal being exposed to dangerous traffic.
Further still, the ramp is adapted to support a plurality of tension mechanisms. In configurations wherein multiple tension mechanisms are used, two or more tension mechanisms are installed on both sides of the ramp. This would permit stable and secure ramp use when animal access is necessary to boats or other elevated surfaces without a stable surface upon which the ramp can rest.
When the stabilizing system is fully implemented, the ramp is properly secured to a portion of a vehicle and stability is provided to the ramp. This stability is achieved by placing a portion of the first end of the ramp on a stable surface, such as a vehicle seat, while simultaneously holding the portion of the first end of the ramp not in contact with the vehicle seat with the stabilizing mechanism when the stabilizing mechanism is coupled to both the vehicle and the first end of the ramp.